Much software is now provided as a service and is typically deployed continuously (CD, continuous deployment), surrounded by enough automated testing (CI, continuous integration) that we can be reasonably sure that a new revision is likely to at least work to some extent.

In contrast, there is a world where people do not appreciate such continuous changes with only a likelihood of things working. Software that controls nuclear power plants, elections, pacemakers, airplanes, bridges, heavy machinery — stuff that can kill you if it does the wrong thing. These fields appreciate software sticking around for decades, with well described and pre-announced changes.

The presentation consisted of a generic part on long term software development and a specific critique of their software development so far. For the generic part, I asked my friends on Mastodon to weigh in:

Mastodon delivered in spades, and most of this post is derived from the input from kind Mastodonians. Now, nothing that follows is particularly earth-shattering. However, the strength of certain recommendations is noteworthy.

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